Happy Father's Day! We love you, Daddy!

Parker is by far the BEST Daddy in the whole world... just ask us! We're not shy about it. We're pretty sure he had a great day.
We sent him on a little scavenger hunt to find his little Father's Day tokens of appreciation; Jackson helped him along the way.
With a few boxes and things undone around the house, it's a GREAT place for a scavenger hunt! (I'm trying to think positively!)

(Do you like our "curtains/blinds"? Thanks, Kate, for letting us use your beach towel.)

Even Mickey thinks he's the World's BEST Daddy! We love you, Daddy! Happy Father's Day.

Playing in our front yard

no kidding. she waits until I'm not looking, then speed crawls towards the dirt and starts frantically eating it by the fist-fulls.
doesn't match, eats dirt (and loves it) ...could be mistaken for little orphan Annie!
hmm, a rock... yeah, she tries to eat these too. The yard is a dangerous place for Kate.
Jackson and I were admiring our flowers. Kate was eating dessert.

Dirty vs. Clean? weird.


Jackson with his new best friend, Duke II
I love baseball, I love red, white & blue... thanks for the shirt, Mom/Grandma!!
Eating grass... silly boy!

What a handsome little boy!








Being goofy... (note: Jackson didn't eat the clover, just put it between his lips in an attempt to be silly)

We love our neighbors! (garden: better late than never)

I had just put it out of my mind so I didn't feel sad... that we didn't ever get around to planting our garden this year. Parker and I had even sat down and drawn out designs, labeled rows, spacing and everything. But with everything inside and out of the house taking SO much longer than we expected, it just didn't happen. However, we have the most incredible gardener next door to us. Jim is a retired dentist and his yard is AMAZING!! He gave us some of his "extra" starts.
That gave us the "let's plant a garden, even though it's a little late in the season" bug. We took a trip and purchased a few more to add to what Jim had given to us.
It's not a huge garden, but we're pretty pleased with ourselves.

(hard to see in the picture, but there is more corn over here, then green beans, okra, and sunflowers to the right. Hopefully, we'll get our pumpkins in the ground in the next few days!

Building a fence

Jackson was so cute... wanting to help Daddy every step of the way (as usual).
He had his little black plastic hammer (from his tool bench) outside and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't hammer the nails into the bracket. This was a very serious and important job though and he was persistent!
Looking good, boys! Nice job on the fence!
Duke was out there for moral support and water control specialist... he spent much of time licking the water running down the side of the road.
This is definitely a team effort! Jackson even got to stay up an hour past his bedtime to help with the project.

Duke (again)?

I'm starting to accept the fact that this puppy is ALSO going to be called Duke. (We already had a dog named Duke, but for various reasons--including moving a ton--we had to send him to a new home.) I really think he should be called Lucky (for reasons discussed previously). I still consider him to be awfully lucky to STILL be living with us! Anyway, I just had to share these pictures. This is usually where Duke is... in Jackson's lap.
I just had to capture this and share. Since Jackson was tiny, he has rubbed his little Ty Puppy's ears between his fingers (usually the pointer and middle). He usually does it when he is just waking up or getting really sleepy. I guess every kid has their "thing" that they do... anyway, I have caught him on a few occasions doing the same thing with Duke's ear and the dog just sits there and lets him do it! It's pretty funny!
Here are some examples with the Ty Puppy.

Kate - 10 months old

Kate had a well child check-up today. She is a BIG girl! She even caused the nurses to do some extra work today and surprised everyone with her height/length.
Kate weighs 22 pounds, putting her in the 95th percentile for weight.
She is 30 3/4 inches long, putting her well above the 100th percentile for height/length. They had a 2nd nurse come in to measure her because of her "abnormal height measurement" as the nurse called it. Sure enough, she really is above the 100th percentile. I think the nurses were a little concerned because I was the one representing the kids' gene pool and very obviously, I am NOT tall. After seeing the confused look on their faces, I explained that their Dad is 6'4" and they have both been "tall" from day 1.
I just love Kate's big blue eyes... they've melted the heart of many people... random people... everywhere we go, people stop me and compliment my kids' beautiful eyes. It's pretty flattering. I think they're beautiful, but I'm the Mom... I'm totally biased. When other people confirm my opinion, it really makes me feel good!
Loving Jackson's Mr. Puppy
Miss Beethoven
playing the piano... she's putting those long fingers of hers to work! Good girl!

She really should be walking, but she doesn't have the confidence to take steps on her own. She walks around everywhere holding onto the furniture, toys, etc.
Yep, eating the dog's food... I'm beginning to think that her taste buds just don't work; she eats EVERYTHING!
No kidding, most recently: dirt (by the fist-fulls), grass, flies, garbanzo beans, plain tomatoes, shredded cheese, plain lettuce, bread, cheerios, paper, grout, morter, puppy chow, plain-uncooked mushrooms, bell peppers... the list goes on. If she can get it in her mouth, she thinks it's edible.
Yum!
So gross! (Note: after the pictures, I did scoop the food out of her mouth and remove her from the dog's food.)
silly boy
watching Thomas the Train... Thanks, Grandma for thinking of Jackson & his love of trains (and any automobile/transportation vehicle)
I went to check on Jackson and this is what I found... at least Duke isn't on the bed!
I asked the doctor if he wouldn't mind weighing and measuring Jackson too, since he won't need a well child check for a while and I wanted to make sure his weight was still healthy (since the boy rarely eats). I shouldn't have worried! Apparently you can thrive on just milk!
At 2-1/2 years old, Jackson weighs 32 pounds, putting him in the 90th percentile for weight.
He is 3 feet, 2 inches tall, putting him in the 95th percentile for height.

So, we still have "tall" kids. Parker's prediction may be on target; he thinks Kate will be taller than Jackson. I don't know about that; at least not long-term. However, since they are only 19 months apart in age, I think there will be an overlap during puberty, when Kate hits her growth spurt earlier than her brother (since girls tend to mature earlier than boys). We'll see what happens. Still, Jackson is NOT short as his Dad sometimes accuses him.